Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter http://ezezine.com
Rob Brezsny's Free Will Astrology Newsletter
"The only unnatural sex act is one you cannot perform."
-Alfred Kinsey
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March 15, 2006
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http://www.freewillastrology.com
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Here are my upcoming public appearances:
NEW DIMENSIONS RADIO
My interview on New Dimensions Radio will air this week.
Listen to it on the New Dimensions website:
http://snipurl.com/nigm
or go to http://snipurl.com/nigh for where it'll play on a radio station in
your area.
WNYC
Thursday, March 23
On Thursday March 23rd, radio station WNYC in New York will feature a
performance I did as part of the series of readings at New York City
laundromats, called "Dirty Laundry: Loads of Prose." I'm not sure of the
time yet. Will keep you informed.
http://www.wnyc.org/
93.9 FM
820 AM
EAST WEST BOOKSTORE
Saturday, April 1
7:30 pm
324 Castro Street
Mountain View, CA 94041
800-909-6161
http://www.eastwest.com/
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"PRONOIA IS THE ANTIDOTE FOR PARANOIA:
How the Whole World Is Conspiring to Shower You with Blessings"
available at http://snipurl.com/krjj
or find out more at http://www.freewillastrology.com
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Below is material that I didn't include in my book, but it's in close
alignment with the book's spirit.
DARK GODDESS WELCOMED BACK IN?
by Rob Brezsny
In 2004, astronomers announced the discovery of a shiny red planet-like
world orbiting the sun far beyond Pluto. They called it Sedna, a name they
said was derived from the Inuit deity that created the Arctic's sea
creatures. But the truth about the myth of Sedna is more complicated.
She is the Dark Goddess, embodiment of the wild female potencies that
are feared yet sorely needed by cultures in which the masculine
perspective dominates. Dwelling on the edge of life and death in her home
at the bottom of the sea, Sedna is both a source of fertile abundance and
a mysterious prodigy. Shamans from the world above swim down to sing
her songs and comb her long black hair. If they win her favor, she gives
them the magic necessary to heal their suffering patients.
The Beauty and Truth Laboratory enjoys entertaining the possibility that
the discovery of Sedna is an omen signaling our collective readiness to
welcome back the long-repressed influence of the Dark Goddess.
We'd like to direct your attention to two further omens. The first is a
book I wrote, *The Televisionary Oracle.* If you don't want to buy it, you
can read it for free on the Web at http://snipurl.com/nieu.
A second hopeful omen of the Dark Goddess's return is the work of
Andrew Harvey (http://www.andrewharvey.net). He has graciously
allowed us to publish a taste of his writing in the piece below.
BLACK MADONNA RETURNS
by Andrew Harvey
The entire world is now going through a massive crucifixion on all levels.
It's going through an environmental crucifixion. Hundreds of species are
vanishing every month. It's going through a personal crucifixion. There are
two billion people living on less than a dollar a day. It's going through a
crucifixion of all the patriarchal systems. Look at Enron and what it has
shown us about Corporate America. Look at the Catholic Church's
scandals of pedophilia and what it shows us about authority. Look at the
growing disillusionment with politicians of all kinds. All of the systems are
being exposed as illusory and fantasy-ridden, as deeply corrupt and
exploitative.
There's another kind of crucifixion going on: crucifixion of purpose and
hope. Everybody is totally bewildered. They know that the world is
potentially on the brink of total apocalypse. There's a tremendous danger
that as people wake up to the horror of what is going on, they will run
into political extremism or into fundamentalism of one kind or another.
So it's extremely important that the wisdom of the 'dark night of the
soul' gets across, because if people understand the necessity for this
crucifixion, and understand that it's preparing a resurrection and
empowerment, then they will be prepared to go through it without too
much fear, trusting in the logic of the divine transformation.
The Benedictine monk Bede Griffiths shared with me his experience of the
dark night of the soul. He said he was sitting outside his hut one day
when he felt as if a hand hit him on the right side of his being. He had
suffered a massive heart attack that destroyed what he described as his
patriarchal mind and gave him access to a much deeper elaboration of
Oneness with all things.
He said, "It's a very strange thing, but when I thought of surrendering to
the Mother I of course thought of Mary--I often say the 'Hail Mary'--but it
was Mary as the Black Madonna that came into my mind. She is the
mother of the earth as well as heaven, of the body as well as the soul, the
mother of the subconscious, the hidden, of all those powers that the
'masculine' mind represses; the Mother of the sacred darkness. In Her the
Western Christian vision of the Divine Mother and the Eastern one merge
and meet; you can think of her as both Mary and Kali, both preserver and
destroyer. From that time on, I have turned to Her again and again.
Invoking Her strength and grace, I find, makes the 'birth' go so much
faster and more cleanly."
The power that is doing this to us is coming towards us simultaneously
with terrifying destruction and extreme grace and prosperity. The
destruction is, in fact, a form of that extreme grace. It's quite clear that
humanity is now terminally ill, and can only be transfigured by a totally
shocking revelation of its shadow side. And this is what we're living
through, these shadow sides exploding in every direction because we have
done nothing but betray the sacred in us.
We have lacerated the sacred in others. We have betrayed the sacred in
an orgy of fundamentalism. We have brutalized the sacred in nature. We
are now terminally destructive.
So only an almost terminal destruction that reveals to us the full extent
of our responsibility in this destruction can wake us up. And that is what
is happening, and it will get worse. It's bound to get worse. But it is only
being done to us for our own redemption.
Those who turn to the Mother in total faith, those who turn to the Black
Madonna in total admiration, those who realize the mercy behind the
violence will be given extraordinary protection, strength, and revelation.
They will be empowered in the core of themselves to become what
everybody who has a heart and a mind must now become--a spiritual
revolutionary devoting their entire life and all their resources to the
preservation of the planet.
Finding the Black Madonna, in whatever form you want to find her,
realizing the massive task that she's doing and turning to her for
protection is now crucial to the preservation of the planet. It's extremely
important that people really come to understand the feminine and turn
towards it, because it's our betrayal of the feminine in ourselves and in
the divine that has led to this crisis.
--Andrew Harvey, in an interview with Colleen O'Connor on the Grace
Cathedral website at http://snipurl.com/nieq
Copyright Andrew Harvey 2004--All Rights Reserved
For more information about Andrew Harvey, see his website at
http://www.andrewharvey.net
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To read other pieces from my book, go here:
http://snipurl.com/l9o3
or
http://freewillastrology.com/beauty/beauty.main145.shtml
To buy the book, use the links to Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble,
which are on my homepage at http://www.freewillastrology.com
Or cut and paste the direct links below:
AMAZON
http://snipurl.com/krjj
BARNES & NOBLE
http://snipurl.com/krjn
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OTHER PRONOIA RESOURCES:
BOOK
*The Once and Future Goddess: A Sweeping Visual Chronicle of the
Sacred Female and Her Reemergence in the Cultural Mythology of Our
Time* by Elinor Gadon
PROTECTION FROM PARANOIA
Aluminum Foil Deflector Beanie: Practical Mind Control Protection for
Paranoids
http://zapatopi.net/afdb/
WEBSITE
"Time Management for Anarchists" by Jim Munroe
http://snipurl.com/en73
CONVERSATIONS
Conversations between Andrew Cohen and Ken Wilber
http://www.wie.org/gurupandit/
(Note: I endorse these because I like them. They're not advertisements,
and I get no kickbacks.)
Please tell me your own personal nominations for PRONOIA RESOURCES.
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FREE WILL ASTROLOGY
Week beginning March 16
Copyright 2006 by Rob Brezsny
http://www.freewillastrology.com
Grammar key: Asterisks equal *italics*
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Your horoscope this week comes to you
courtesy of the ancient Chinese book of oracles, the *I Ching,* translated
by Richard Wilhelm. The title of your reading is "Liberation." Here's the
heart of it: "In times of standstill it will happen that inferior people attach
themselves to you and even seem to grow indispensable. But when the
time of deliverance draws near, with its call to action, you must free
yourself from such chance acquaintances with whom you have no inner
connections. For otherwise the friends who share your views, on whom
you could rely and together with whom you could accomplish great
things, mistrust you and stay away."
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): I predict that animals will be especially
attracted to you in the coming days. The light of the sun will seem to
possess an uncanny fluidity and sparkle. You may experience vivid
fantasies like seeing a talking cat in a tree or hearing advice coming from
a soap dispenser. Strangers may gaze at you for no apparent reason, and
even your friends will have unusual feelings for you. You may be reunited
with precious memories that have been lost to you for a long time. In the
consciousness industry, we call this *natural magic time.*
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): "I am a fugitive from the law of averages,"
writes Sage Price, one of my Gemini readers. "I swore a long time ago that
I would never be taken alive by anything that was average, commonplace,
standard, or ordinary." His attitude is especially recommended for you
right now. In order to harvest the potential rewards the cosmos has
prepared for you, you've got to push to excel; you've got to cultivate a
lust to be unique; you've even got to be willing to risk making other
people envious of you. One of the worst sins you could commit would be
half-assed mediocrity.
CANCER (June 21-July 22): Siam's King Mongut had a harem of 9,000
women. On his deathbed, however, before succumbing to the ravages of
syphilis, he confessed that he was truly in love with only 700 of his
lovers--less than eight percent of the total. Why he didn't concentrate on
that eight percent and forget the rest we'll never know. Don't make a
similar mistake in the coming months, Cancerian. You will have the chance
to indulge in a great variety of pleasurable adventures, but only a fraction
will have the potential of nourishing your soul.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): What's the best way to defeat a dragon? Some
fairy tales propose the use of brute force, while others suggest that the
protection of a magical amulet is preferable. Still other myths say the
optimum strategy is to use stealth to avoid the dragon completely,
though that usually means living in constant fear of the beast. From what
I can tell, Leo, your future happiness will be best served if you use none
of the above, but instead employ one of the two little-known methods of
dragon-taming: either ask it sly riddles to confuse it or else pacify it
through the entertaining power of your songs and dances.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): "We have art so that we may not die of
reality," said Friedrich Nietzsche. While I'm sure you won't literally be
killed off by reality this week, it could bore you half to death--unless you
aggressively subject yourself to massive amounts of really fine art. I'm
not just talking about listening to formulaic pop music or getting a
glimpse of the *Mona Lisa* on an ad for the upcoming film *The Da Vinci
Code.* I'm referring to intensive exposure to inspired painting, sculpture,
music, architecture, dance, and literature--sublime forms of creative
expression that you may have to work hard to find.
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EXPLORE THE BIG PICTURE OF YOUR LIFE
with my Expanded Audio Horoscopes for the Coming Year
How can you best cooperate with the opportunities and challenges that
2006 will bring you? What are the blessings that life is likely to offer you
as a spur to your growth? Would you like some inspiration as you survey
your destiny from the mountaintop perspective?
To access my IN-DEPTH, LONG-TERM AUDIO FORECASTS FOR YOUR LIFE IN
2006, go here:
http://snipurl.com/krjm
Click on your astrological sign, then choose either part 1, part 2, or part 3
of my BIG PICTURE look at your future--or even all three parts, if you're
feeling adventurous.
You can also choose to listen to my short-range outlook for the coming
week.
The Expanded Audio Horoscopes cost $6 apiece if you access them on
the Web via RealAudio.
You can also hear them over the phone for $1.99 per minute.
From the United States, call
1-900-950-7700
or
1-877-873-4888.
If you live in Canada, call
1-888-499-4425.
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LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): To be of real service to you, I have to do more
than be simplistically optimistic. It's important for me to be your
cheerleader, counterbalancing the negative reinforcement that so often
comes your way, but it would be irresponsible of me to inflate you with
false hopes. This week, for instance, I have to report that there's a 65
percent chance of you achieving a major breakthrough in at least one of
your relationships, but *only* if you lose every ounce of self-pity and
refuse to blame anyone for your sorrows. I also foresee the possibility of
you healing 55 percent of one of your old wounds, but only if you stretch
yourself to learn a new lesson from the original trauma.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): A few years ago, executives at a major
record company signed my band to their label. They loved us. We were
the next big thing. Or at least that's what they told us up until the
moment when they demanded that we change the titles and lyrics to
some of our songs. They were afraid that the cigarette company Philip
Morris would sue us for our song "Marlboro Man Jr." and that Kmart would
sue us for our song "Kmart Tribal Ballet." We agreed to make the changes
only because we had no choice: If we refused, our music would have never
been heard. The company owned the rights to it. Let this serve as an
example of what *not* to do in the coming weeks, Scorpio. Do all the
research and strategic long-range thinking necessary to avoid getting into
a position where people you don't know very well control your fate.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): It's a good time to reconnect with your
childhood memories--especially the good ones that made your heart sing.
You will derive great practical benefits from remembering specific scenes
that embodied the essence of who you were back in the beginning. Was
there a time you read an exciting book under the covers with a flashlight
way past your bedtime? Or waded in the creek searching for a fantastic
treasure some big kid told you about? I hope you give yourself the rare
pleasure of reliving those events, trusting that they'll provide you with
the exact emotional lift you need.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): This would be an excellent week to tilt all
the paintings on the walls of your home so they're hanging a bit crooked,
refer to yourself as the "Wizard of Desserts," and stand in a mud puddle
up to your ankles. I suggest that you further take advantage of the
astrological opportunities by using a felt-tip pen to draw tattoos of magic
symbols on your body, making love with grocery bags over your heads,
and reciting dirty limericks in front of people who think you're too serious.
It's high time for you to lose your cool.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Metaphorically speaking, you will duck at
just the right time to miss the cream pie that's headed toward your face.
At least that's what I predict, Aquarius. In addition to your good timing
and skill at protecting yourself, you will also have a knack for avoiding
messy complications, which is lucky given the fact that people around you
may act as if messy complications are fun and interesting. Here's further
good news: You will have an instinct for detecting the slivers of truth that
are embedded in wads of total BS. That will allow you to act with lucid
efficiency while others are out fighting non-existent demons.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): One day 17 years ago I was lying alone on my
acupuncturist's table, floating in that hypnogogic state you sometimes
slip into when your ears, wrists, feet, and forehead are pierced with
needles. At one point she came in to check on me. Patting me on the
upper arm, she murmured, "You will live a long life." I received it as a
prophecy, as a gift from her intuition to mine. In the days and months
that followed, it stripped away the habitual anxiety I carried around with
me and freed me to live with more courage and abandon. It gave me
license to believe more wildly in my own potential. Now I'm offering you
the same gift, Pisces. If you're reading this horoscope today, you will live
a long life.
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HOMEWORK:
What's the one thing you swore you'd never do which now maybe you're
thinking about doing? Testify by going to
http://www.freewillastrology.com and clicking on "Email Rob."
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WANT TO GET YOUR CHART DONE?
I'm not doing charts these days. In addition to writing my weekly column
and expanded audio horoscopes, I'm also working on a CD and promoting
my new book.
But I can recommend a colleague whose astro-aesthetics closely match
my own. She's RO LOUGHRAN.
Ro utilizes a blend of well-trained intuition, emotional warmth, and a high
degree of technical proficiency in horoscope interpretation; she is skilled
at exploring the mysteries of your life's purpose and nurturing your
connection with your own inner wisdom.
Ro is based in California, but can do phone consultations and otherwise
work with you regardless of geographic boundaries.
Ro's website is at
http://www.astrology-psychotherapy.com/
She can also be reached at roloughran@comcast.net
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NEED TO CHANGE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS?
To subscribe or unsubscribe to this newsletter, or to change the address
where you receive it, go to:
http://www.freewillastrology.com/newsletter/
Once you do subscribe, be sure to add my address,
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If my emails don't reach your inbox, you should also look in your "Bulk
Mail" or "Junk Mail" folder.
I totally respect your privacy. I'll never sell or give away your address to
anyone.
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Submissions sent to the Free Will Astrology Weekly Newsletter
or in response to "homework assignments" may be
published in a variety of formats at Rob Brezsny's discretion,
including but not limited to newsletters, books, the Free Will
Astrology column, and Free Will Astrology website. We reserve
the right to edit such submissions for length, style, and content.
Requests for anonymity will be honored with submissions;
otherwise, reader names, screen names, or initials will be used.
Please be sure to note your preference when sending to us. We
are not responsible for unsolicited submission of any creative
material.
Contents of the Free Will Astrology Newsletter are Copyright
2006 Rob Brezsny
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